Another crisis solved by our Dear Leader

 

They shall not pass

Obama has resolved the problem of illegal aliens swarming across our border by directing the Border Patrol to no longer use the term – they’re all “immigrants” now. Feel better? Nancy, “It’s not a crisis, it’s an opportunity” Pelosi anticipated this shift long ago, and hasn’t referred to an illegal alien since “Mars Attacks” first aired, and the main stream press has meekly followed her lead. Now that the Border Patrol has been ordered to stand down and shut up we can all go about our business and welcome, as Pelosi calls them, “our fellow Americans”.

FWIW reader Inaguga has always urged patience on these pages, arguing that the collapse of America will be a slow decline, one that will take another generation, even two before reaching end game. Watching the increasing lawlessness of this administration and its allies, and the rising fury of the rest of the populace, I’m not so sure.

A forecast for Walt, cowering under his bed

“Walls of thunderstorms!” as my mother liked to warn She’d enjoy this one – run the time loop, and watch how everything is moving east. 9 – 10 PM should be an exciting time for us here in Greenwich.

Coming our way

Who?

 

Where’ve I been?

Biden: “Don’t forget about me!”

The man knows his market

 

 

White Birch Farm visitors from Rye await their costumes

Polo gear shoppe opens on Greenwich Avenue. There are exactly 13 active polo players in town, but that’s not the point: there are thousands who want to pretend they are. And even more in Westchester County.

Commenting that the Houston store has become a stop for shoppers who are non-polo players but intrigued by its clothing lines, Seibert said he expects the same to occur in Greenwich. And some of those shoppers might consider taking up the sport. “Some may say polo is cool. I want to give it a try,” he said.

Don’t get your breeches in a knot waiting for that to happen.

You can sell a man a fancy watch and special clothes, but still …

Seems everybody wants a piece of the pie

 

What difference does it make?

The NYT reports (disapprovingly, naturally) of new lobbying efforts by schools to persuade Congress to relax the new school nutrition standards (in Greenwich, our school board just did it itself, ditching the standards for high school kids). Kids won’t eat the stuff, anyway, and it’s breaking budgets. You can agree with that or side with Michelle Obama, but what struck me is who’s in the fight: in addition to the major food companies, who are funding the opponents, it turns out there’s another player, the cafeteria workers union.

As part of its legislative outreach, the association replaced its longtime representative in Washington with the high-powered lobbying firm Barnes & Thornburg. Marshall Matz, who was the group’s lobbyist for more than 30 years, had long focused his efforts on the Agriculture Department and the Food and Drug Administration. But the campaign change has prompted a shift to Congress, especially the House and Senate Appropriations Committees….

The School Nutrition Association’s aggressive lobbying has led to a backlash from other nutrition groups, parent-teacher organizations, food service workers unions and the powerful teachers’ union, the National Education Association, which counts cafeteria employees among its members.

Who knew that the Obama mandate was a benefit to cafeteria union workers and the NEA? It explains why he pushed so hard for the law, of course, but I wouldn’t have guessed that there was a labor element here. Silly me.

When cougars attack

 

Elizabeth Highley – I should say so

Woman, 56, pulls knife on 26-year-old who declined her offer of sex.

Finley, investigators reported, said that Highley “wanted to have sex,“ but he “rejected her sexual advances, causing her to become angry and violent.” Highley allegedly grabbed a knife and sliced Finley’s left thumb as he fled her Windmill Village home.

Cops subsequently encountered Highley as she ran after Finley. Highley, carrying a large knife and a broken wooden cane, complied with Officer Paul Hutchinson’s order to drop the weapons and lie down on the ground.

Highley, the cop noted, was “angry, crying and appeared to be intoxicated” when taken into custody. She was released later in the day after posting bail on the aggravated assault count.

Beautiful home

 

265 Valley Rd (construction period, February)

265 Valley Road, $2.995 million, held its first broker open house today and it was worth the wait – fabulous house. I first wrote about this in February, after Greenwich Time profiled it. An under-sized lot, on a cliff, with wetlands at its base, it took the builders Tim Muldoon and John Kavounas a year just to get the necessary permits to begin construction, and at that, the FAR limited it to just 3,000 square feet, but, the developer/builders, along with designer Amy Zepplin (who looks nothing like one, by the way) have made the most of every inch; I’d pay up to downsize here.

The place looks conventional from the street, but the interior is crisp, clean and modern, with spectacular views across and down the Mianus. Two bedrooms on the top floor, a master on the “ground” floor, and more space, including a splash pool and patio below. Plus, a dock on the river, so you can fish, sail, ice fish, or skate, depending on your tastes and the weather (although if Al Gore has his way, the latter two activities will be impossible by 2015).

Instead of conventional wooden railings or cables separating the decks from a 50′ drop there are tempered glass panels that don’t obstruct the views. If you suffer from vertigo, you may want to change them to more solid-looking barriers, but I think they’re fabulous and besides, if you don’t like heights, you shouldn’t buy a house on a cliff. The only other quibble is the relatively small closets in the master bedroom. “Relatively” small because, in any normal part of the world, these would be ample; in Greenwich, buyers seem to want 1,500 sq. ft. closets just for the lady of the house. My suggestion: you have too much stuff – toss it out and live free.

Checkout the pictures in the first link, because they give the flavor that I can’t, but this is a fun, beautiful home. Not for small children: there’s not really a yard, but for anyone else, a unique, even spectacular house. I don’t know when there will be a public open house but when one is held, you should go see it just for fun, and to see what can be done with a small, “unbuildable” lot.

 

Something happened

 

5 Lindsay Drive

5 Lindsay Drive, $3.695 ask, was reported under contract last April, and returned to the market June 25th after the deal fell through. Last night, a reader who wishes to remain anonymous hinted why:

Hi Chris,

You may be interested to do a little digging at Town Hall into the reason the 5 Lindsay Drive contract fell through.  It’s a good warning for house buyers to bring an architect along when buying a house. Things don’t always appear as they really are.

Without going to Town Hall (hey,it’s 5:45 am), I’d guess the difficulty arose over the presence of the second home on the property. Usually structures that were legal (zoning-compliant) when built are “grandfathered”, meaning they’re exempt from current zoning restrictions, but not always. On the other hand, it might be something else.

What I do know is that this has always been a very attractive piece of land, but overpriced because of its owner’s insistence on pricing it as though there were value in the house and outbuildings. If a problem has arisen, perhaps a bit of reality is beginning to set in, and this might be an opportunity to offer a realistic, albeit much lower, bid.

Or not – the owner’s a real estate agent, and we all know how that goes.